{"id":4565,"date":"2014-01-27T15:30:53","date_gmt":"2014-01-27T15:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/?p=4565"},"modified":"2014-01-27T15:30:53","modified_gmt":"2014-01-27T15:30:53","slug":"congressman-needed-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=4565","title":{"rendered":"Congressman needed to go"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p>Trey Radel deserves a pat on the back today for doing the right thing.<\/p>\n<p>The Florida Republican congressman is going to announce his resignation from the House of Representatives after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor cocaine possession charge.<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/articles\/2014\/01\/27\/trey_radel_to_resign_house_seat_121366.html<\/p>\n<p>If only other allegedly high-minded public servants would be so noble.<\/p>\n<p>Radel had to go. The state&#8217;s Republican establishment had deserted him. Others were lining up to run for his safely Republican seat, including the guy he succeeded in the House, former Rep. Connie Mack. <\/p>\n<p>Why is this an important resignation? Because some Americans &#8212; me included &#8212; want our elected representatives to <em>represent<\/em> the best in us. Radel got caught possessing cocaine, a serious drug that has been known to kill those who use it. He sits in a body that makes laws to punish people severely for using this illegal substance. Therefore, Trey Radel no longer could in good conscience continue to serve in that body.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t subscribe to the idea that we should elect saints to public office. Those who take an oath to honor and defend the Constitution, though, should have clean hands.<\/p>\n<p>Radel&#8217;s hands got very dirty.<\/p>\n<p>Other members of Congress haven&#8217;t been so noble. They&#8217;ve hung on to their seats while they fight criminal charges. Others manage to embarrass their constituents, not to mention their families with their roguish, boorish and occasionally illegal behavior.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll give Rep. Radel praise for doing what he had to do by stepping away from the public arena. <\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trey Radel deserves a pat on the back today for doing the right thing. The Florida Republican congressman is going to announce his resignation from the House of Representatives after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor cocaine possession charge. http:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/articles\/2014\/01\/27\/trey_radel_to_resign_house_seat_121366.html If only other allegedly high-minded public servants would be so noble. Radel had to go. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=4565\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Congressman needed to go<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1049,1112,1461,2183,4907],"class_list":["post-4565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cocaine","tag-congress","tag-drug-abuse","tag-house-of-representatives","tag-trey-radel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}